2 Fireworkz basics

This chapter describes the various features of Fireworkz which enable you to control it, such as menus, dialogue boxes and control key shortcuts. It gives you a tour of the Fireworkz document window and the controls it contains.

Descriptions are given for both the RISC OS and Windows versions of Fireworkz. You will see that as much as the two different operating environments allow, the two are designed to be as similar as possible, helping users who need to use both versions.

This chapter also shows you how to customise the on-screen look of Fireworkz so that you can set up the program to show you the details you want to see at the size that works best for you on your screen and computer.

It includes sections on:

Using Fireworkz

When you are using Fireworkz you will need to issue it with a variety of commands (instructions), so that it does what you want.

Most commands can be accessed through menus; some of the choices on menus lead to simple or detailed dialogue boxes into which you can type your preferences.

The actions you need to perform most frequently in processing your documents can be accessed from the toolbar, where each is represented by an icon button.

The document window

When you use Fireworkz to create a new document or load an existing document, the document will appear in a window on your desktop. For example:

Example document window

The central area in white represents the paper onto which you can enter your document. Anything inside this area will appear when your document is printed, anything outside this area will not appear.

The other areas of the window are explained briefly below.

The title bar

The title bar of your document window includes some helpful information about your document:

The toolbar

Many word processing and editing tasks are simple and repetitive, so Fireworkz offers you a quick way of performing them, and saves you from having to hunt for the command on the menu or remember a complicated key shortcut.

At the top of the document window is a toolbar containing a row of icons, called tool buttons.

Toolbar

Clicking on a button performs a specific task, such as justifying the selected paragraph, changing the selected text to bold or cutting and pasting selected text. Tool buttons which are currently in use look as if they have been pressed in. Tool buttons which are not available for use in the current context are disabled and appear greyed out.

The toolbar also enables you to set tabs, and to apply styles and effects to selected text or at the caret.

The status line

The status line is an area of the document window dedicated to giving you help and information about the work in progress.

If you move the mouse pointer (without clicking) over control areas of the window, such as the toolbar, a message appears explaining the function of the button.

If you drag tab and paragraph markers in the ruler, the precise measurements of the place where you have clicked are shown in the selected unit of measurement, enabling you to align text and paragraphs precisely.

The status line gives information about spreadsheet functions and operators as you select them from lists.

The results of certain operations, such as style/effect region counts and word counts, are displayed on the status line until the mouse pointer is moved again.

The ruler

The horizontal top ruler appears by default in all letter documents. You may also choose to display a vertical ruler, using the View control dialogue box described below.

In documents where no rulers are displayed (usually spreadsheet documents) you can turn on the rulers using the View control dialogue box.

As well as measurement markings the top ruler shows you the left, paragraph and right margins and tabs. Use the status line to help you.

The ruler is marked out in inches, millimetres or centimetres. Change the unit of measurement using the commands on the Extra menu.

Menus

A menu is a list of commands and other choices from which you can choose an option.

RISC OS: The menus in Fireworkz appear when you click Menu (the middle mouse button), enabling you to choose commands from them as necessary.

Windows: The menus in Fireworkz appear at the top of each document window enabling you to choose commands from them as necessary.

Some menu entries include an arrow leading to a sub-menu from which you should make your choice. Others include a keyboard short cut which enables you to bypass the menu entirely. This is shown by a short cut code next to the menu entry.

Windows: You can also select entries from menus by typing in the underlined letter from the option text whilst holding down Alt.

Dialogue boxes

You can navigate dialogue boxes in several different ways. The main features of dialogue boxes are shown below:

Using the mouse, click on sections of the dialogue box you want to edit.

Move through the dialogue box using the Tab key. This highlights each section in turn, allowing you to make a choice and type in your entry. Shift-Tab may be used to move backwards through the dialogue box.

Windows: If the title of a section, or an option, contains an underlined letter, holding down the Alt key whilst typing that letter moves you straight to that section, and in the case of options, turns them on as well. If an underlined letter appears in an action button, Alt-letter will act as if that button had been clicked. For example, typing Alt-A would take you to the Above paragraph spacing option in the Style editor dialogue box, and turn it on if it was turned off.

Customising the look of Fireworkz

Use the View control and View scale dialogue boxes to customise the on-screen look of Fireworkz within a document window.

Settings chosen with the View control and View scale dialogue boxes apply to the current document; if you have a particular setting you prefer, set up a document template which includes your chosen settings.

Accessing the View Control dialogue box

View tool button To access the View control dialogue box, click the View tool button at the far left of the toolbar.

The View control dialogue box will appear. Its various sections let you customise the view of your document. See:

Displaying paper and borders

The Display section of the View control dialogue box contains a set of radio buttons allowing you to choose which area is displayed in the window.

Click the required radio button and then click the Apply button. The view will immediately change in the document.

Rulers and borders

Depending on the type of document you are editing, you may want different measurement markers on display in rulers around the edge of the document, possibly in conjunction with either the column or row borders. You may have as many or as few of these displayed as you wish; they are helpful for designing pages, setting margins and formatting tables. The default setting in letter documents is that the top ruler is displayed; in sheet documents that the row and column borders are displayed.

If switched on:

Accessing the View scale dialogue box

You may view the document you are working on at different sizes. View tool button To access the View scale dialogue box, click Adjust (RISC OS) or Ctrl-click (Windows) on the View button at the far left of the toolbar.

The View scale dialogue box will appear.

The default scale is 100%, that is the actual size of the text and paper. You may change this in one of three ways:

Whichever procedure you follow, click Apply in the dialogue box to confirm your choice.

Choosing the ruler measurement

You may have the ruler marked in one of several scales; one of inches, millimetres, or centimetres. Inches may be divided in quarters, eighths, tenths or sixteenths.

To choose the measurement:

Display the Extra menu, and slide off the Ruler or Side ruler option, depending on which you want to change.

Select a measurement from the list.

The ruler will display your chosen measurement and it will also be the measurement used in dialogue boxes.

You can use the Choices dialogue box to set the default ruler measurement for new documents.

Splitting the view

Sometimes you may find it useful to display two separate parts of a document at once, within the same window. This is useful if:

To set up split views:

Display the View control dialogue box.

Switch on the Vertical split option button to divide the window vertically. You might want to do this if you were comparing one part of your document with another or cutting and pasting.

Switch on the Horizontal split option button to divide the window horizontally. You might want to do this if you have a very wide table.

Click the Apply button in the dialogue box. The screen will be displayed with your chosen view.

Use the scroll bars and arrows for each view to move to the parts of the document you want to display. You can also resize each half of the window independently using the Adjust size icon.

Splitting the view on screen (Windows)

You can split the screen by selecting and dragging the split marker. Simply:

  1. Point to the area just above the top of the vertical scroll bar or to the left of the horizontal scroll bar. You will see the pointer change into a bar with an arrow pointing from either side.
  2. Drag the pointer to the place in the window where you want the split to be.
  3. You can point to the split line and move it, and independently scroll the two portions of the window.

To close the split, point to it and drag it back up to the edge of the top or leftmost scroll bar. The single editing window will be restored.

New view

To create a new window on a document:

  1. Choose the New view option from the View menu.
  2. A new document window will appear; both windows will have a number 2 in the title bar to show that there are two windows open on the same document.

Changes made in one window will appear immediately in the other windows open on the same document.

Choices dialogue box

There are some settings in Fireworkz which you will want set in every document you produce. They relate to the way you use Fireworkz rather than to individual documents you work on.

These choices are made using the Choices dialogue box, which is accessed from the icon bar menu (RISC OS) or from the File menu (Windows).

Auto save

Auto save automatically saves any files you have open at the interval in minutes you have specified.

If the number of minutes is set to zero, Auto save is turned off.

To turn Auto save on:

Remember that Auto save can be very destructive, as well as useful. If you often change your mind about text in your document, you should be wary of this feature. You might want to go back to an older version of the file, only to find that Auto save has just overwritten it. Either set Auto save to off, or save a copy of the document under a different name at the start of an editing session. Auto save will overwrite this version, and your original will not be overwritten.

Allow dithering

This option is only available on Windows. If you use dithered colours, pictures will be displayed in colours closer to their true colours on 16 colour displays. If you do not use dithered colours, the nearest solid colour will be substituted.

Display pictures

This option turns the display of pictures in a document on or off. If the option button is switched on, pictures will be displayed. You may wish not to have pictures displayed while you are editing the document in order to scroll through the document more quickly.

Embed pictures

Usually pictures are embedded in documents so that when you save the document, a copy of the picture is saved as part of it. You may prefer to have the picture referenced by your documents. The main advantage of this is that it saves hard disc space. But referencing has the disadvantage that it is harder to move documents around.

To reference pictures, turn the Embed pictures option off.

For more details on using pictures, see the Pictures section.

Status line (turning off)

You may decide that you want to turn the status line off. To do this, deselect it by turning the switch off in the Choices dialogue box. Any new windows opened will not have a status line.

Default ruler

Click on one of the entries in the list box to choose the measurements which will appear on the ruler in new documents.

Recalculation

These choices govern whether automatic recalculation is enabled or not.

Charts

This option lets you switch off the automatic update of charts within documents. If you do this, your charts will not be updated when the data on which they are based changes. You may want to turn this option off to speed up the processing of your data, and then turn it back on at the end of an editing session.

Spelling

Some spelling checker settings are set via the Choices dialogue box.

Set the Auto check option button to turn check as you type spelling checking on.

Set the Load Master dictionary option button to load the master dictionary automatically when starting up.

Set the Load user dictionary option button to load the user dictionary.

Set the Write to user dictionary option button to allow new words to be added to the user dictionary.

For information on using the spelling checker see the Editing text section.

Saving your choices

To save your choices for future sessions, click Save in the dialogue box.